The Huntington Beach Oil Field is part of rich pools of oil found along the West Coast of the United States in the early 1920s [1] stretching from Huntington Beach, California to Santa Barbara, California. [2]
The Huntington Beach Oil Field is part of rich pools of oil found along the West Coast of the United States in the early 1920s [1] stretching from Huntington Beach, California to Santa Barbara, California. [2]
On May 24, 1920, the first Huntington Beach well, the Huntington A-1 33°41′01″N118°00′34″W / 33.683522°N 118.009536°W , [3] was brought in as a producing well. [4] By October 1921, the field had 59 producing wells. [4] Even with 16 of those 59 wells being idle, the field produced 16,500 barrels of oil equivalent (101,000 GJ) per day, with each well producing from 50 to 200 barrels daily. [4]
The conflict of coastal oil drilling with beachfront recreation and tourism has been [5] a central theme in Southern California politics. The discovery of oil was followed by a real estate boom in the surrounding communities. [6] For example, as the Huntington Beach Oil Field expanded, the homes in that area that stood in the path of drawing oil from the ground were physically relocated north 6 miles (9.7 km) in 1921-1922 to lots in Midway City, California, which "started Midway City". [7] In addition, the discovery led to the development of the oceanfront community of Sunset Beach, California, which was established in 1905. [6]
As of 2000, Huntington Beach had produced over a billion barrels of oil and 845 billion cf of natural gas. [8] In 2013, the USGS estimated that the Huntington Beach Oil Field could produce an additional 117 to 866 million barrels of oil, with their best estimate being 370 million barrels. It is unlikely that all of this oil could be produced, given the location. Current value of this estimate of potential oil, if it was produced, would be about $37 billion, at $100/bbl. [9]
California Resources Corporation currently operates the Huntington Beach Oil Field in Orange County. [10]
Santa Fe Springs is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. The population was 16,223 at the 2010 census, down from 17,438 in the 2000 census.
The Wilmington Oil Field is a prolific petroleum field in Los Angeles County in southern California in the United States. Discovered in 1932, it is the third largest oil field in the United States in terms of cumulative oil production. The field runs roughly southeast to northwest through the Los Angeles Basin, stretching from the middle of San Pedro Bay through Long Beach and east of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The field originally contained approximately 3 billion barrels (480,000,000 m3) of reserves. In 2013, the USGS estimated future potential production from the combined Wilmington-Belmont oilfield could be around 900 million barrels (140,000,000 m3).
San Pedro Bay is an inlet on the Pacific Ocean coast of southern California, United States. It is the site of the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together form the fifth-busiest port facility in the world and the busiest in the Americas. The Los Angeles community of San Pedro borders a small portion of the western side of the bay. The city of Long Beach borders the port on the eastern side of the bay. The northern part of the bay, which is the largest part of the port, is bordered by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington.
Sunset Beach is a Huntington Beach beachfront community in Orange County, California. It was established on September 8, 1904 and developed as a result of the 1920 discovery of oil in the Huntington Beach Oil Field. The census-designated place of Sunset Beach, and its population of 971 as of the 2010 census, was annexed by Huntington Beach in 2011. The elevation is 5.3 feet (1.6 m) above sea level and the community is stretched out along Pacific Coast Highway bracketed by the ocean and Huntington Harbour.
Edward Laurence Doheny was an American oil tycoon who, in 1892, drilled the first successful oil well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field. His success set off a petroleum boom in Southern California, and made him a fortune when, in 1902, he sold his properties.
Midway City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) that forms part of the county land controlled by Orange County, California. The only area in Orange County that incorporates its chamber of commerce and homeowners association to act in concert like a city council, the area mostly is surrounded by Westminster with Huntington Beach bordering it on the southwest. Midway City was so named because it is horizontally midway between Seal Beach, to the west, and Santa Ana, to the east. The 2010 census listed the population as 8,485.
Aera Energy LLC is a natural gas, oil exploration and production company started as a joint venture between Shell plc and Mobil. Headquartered in Bakersfield, California, Aera Energy LLC is a California limited liability company, and one of California's largest oil and natural gas producers, with an approximate 2015 revenues of over $2 billion. Aera is operated as a stand-alone company through its board of managers.
The Midway-Sunset Oil Field is a large oil field in Kern County, San Joaquin Valley, California in the United States. It is the largest known oilfield in California and also the largest oil field in the country by total oil in place, though Alaska's Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and the East Texas Oil Field have larger total production values of over 13 billion barrels and 5.4 billion barrels respectively compared to Midway-Sunset which has produced nearly 4 billion barrels.
The South Belridge Oil Field is a large oil field in northwestern Kern County, San Joaquin Valley, California, about forty miles west of Bakersfield. Discovered in 1911, and having a cumulative production of over 2,000 million barrels (320,000,000 m3) of oil equivalent at the end of 2023, it is the fourth-largest oil field in California, after the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, Kern River Oil Field, and Wilmington Oil Field, and is the sixth-most productive field in the United States. Its estimated remaining reserves, as of the end of 2008, were around 494 million barrels (78,500,000 m3) out of approximately 10.2 billion barrels of original oil in place, and it had 6,253 active wells. The principal operator on the field was Aera Energy LLC, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil. Additionally, the field included the only onshore wells in California owned and operated by ExxonMobil.
The Elk Hills Oil Field is a large oil field in western Kern County, in the Elk Hills of the San Joaquin Valley, California in the United States, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Bakersfield. Discovered in 1911, and having a cumulative oil production of close to 1.5 billion barrels (240,000 dam3) and a cumulative barrel of oil equivalent production of 2.2 billion BOE at the end of 2023, it is the fifth-largest oil field in California, and the seventh-most productive field in the United States.
The Monterey Formation is an extensive Miocene oil-rich geological sedimentary formation in California, with outcrops of the formation in parts of the California Coast Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and on some of California's off-shore islands. The type locality is near the city of Monterey, California. The Monterey Formation is the major source-rock for 37 to 38 billion barrels of oil in conventional traps such as sandstones. This is most of California's known oil resources. The Monterey has been extensively investigated and mapped for petroleum potential, and is of major importance for understanding the complex geological history of California. Its rocks are mostly highly siliceous strata that vary greatly in composition, stratigraphy, and tectono-stratigraphic history.
Offshore oil and gas in California provides a significant portion of the state's petroleum production. Offshore oil and gas has been a contentious issue for decades, first over the question of state versus federal ownership, but since 1969 mostly over questions of resource development versus environmental protection.
The Ventura Oil Field is a large and currently productive oil field in the hills immediately north of the city of Ventura in southern California in the United States. It is bisected by California State Route 33, the freeway connecting Ventura to Ojai, and is about eight miles (13 km) long by two across, with the long axis aligned east to west. Discovered in 1919, and with a cumulative production of over 1 billion barrels (160,000,000 m3) of oil as of 2023 out of its original 3.3 billion. It is the tenth-largest producing oil field in California, retaining approximately 50 million barrels in reserve, and had 423 wells still producing. As of 2009 it was entirely operated by Aera Energy LLC.
The Long Beach Oil Field is a large oil field underneath the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, California, in the United States. Discovered in 1921, the field was enormously productive in the 1920s, with hundreds of oil derricks covering Signal Hill and adjacent parts of Long Beach; largely due to the huge output of this field, the Los Angeles Basin produced one-fifth of the nation's oil supply during the early 1920s. In 1923 alone the field produced over 68 million barrels of oil, and in barrels produced by surface area, the field was the world's richest. During the early stages of the field's development, unlike most oil fields, land was leased by the square inch instead of by the acre. The field is eighth-largest by cumulative production in California, and although now largely depleted, still officially retains around 5 million barrels of recoverable oil and has produced 963 million out of 3,600 million barrels of original oil in place. 294 wells remained in operation as of the beginning of 2008, and in 2008 the field reported production of over 1.5 million barrels of oil. The field is currently run entirely by small independent oil companies, with the largest operator in 2009 being Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc.
The Brea-Olinda Oil Field is a large oil field in northern Orange County and Los Angeles County, California, along the southern edge of the Puente Hills, about four miles (6 km) northeast of Fullerton, and adjacent to the city of Brea. Discovered in 1880, the field is the sixteenth largest in California by cumulative production, and was the first of California's largest 50 oil fields to be found. It has produced over 430 million barrels of oil in the 130 years since it was first drilled, and retains approximately 20 million barrels in reserve recoverable with current technology. As of the beginning of 2009, 475 wells remained active on the field, operated by several independent oil companies, including Linn Energy, BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P., Cooper & Brain, and Thompson Energy.
The THUMS Islands are a set of four artificial islands in San Pedro Bay off the coast of Long Beach, California. The THUMS Islands were built in 1965 to tap into the East Wilmington Oil Field. The landscaping and sound walls were designed to camouflage the operation and reduce noise, and they are the only decorated oil islands in the United States. The islands were named for the company who bid for original operating contract, THUMS, a consortium named after its parent companies: Texaco, Humble, Unocal, Mobil, and Shell.
The history of oil production in California began in the late 19th century. In 1903, California became the leading oil-producing state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930. As of 2022, California produced 3% of the crude oil of the nation, behind Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, Colorado, and Oklahoma. In the past century, California's oil industry grew to become the state's number one GDP export and one of the most profitable industries in the region. The history of oil in the state of California, however, dates back much earlier than the 19th century. For thousands of years prior to European settlement in America, Native Americans in the California territory excavated oil seeps. By the mid-19th century, American geologists discovered the vast oil reserves in California and began mass drilling in the Western Territory. While California's production of excavated oil increased significantly during the early 20th century, the accelerated drilling resulted in an overproduction of the commodity, and the federal government unsuccessfully made several attempts to regulate the oil market.
The California oil and gas industry has been a major economic and cultural component of the US state of California for over a century. Oil production was a minor factor in the 19th century, with kerosene replacing whale oil and lubricants becoming essential to the machine age. Oil became a major California industry in the 20th century with the discovery on new fields around Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley, and the dramatic increase in demand for gasoline to fuel automobiles and trucks. In 1900 California pumped 4 million barrels (640,000 m3), nearly 5% of the national supply. Then came a series of major discoveries, and the state pumped 100 million bbl (16 million m3) in 1914, or 38% of the national supply. In 2012 California produced 197 million bbl (31 million m3) of crude oil, out of the total 2,375 million bbl (378 million m3) of oil produced in the US, representing 8.3% of national production. California drilling operations and oil production are concentrated primarily in Kern County, San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles basin.
The Dominguez Oil Field is a large oil field underneath Dominguez Hills near Carson, California and the California State University, Dominguez Hills. It was a major oil producer from 1923 through 1960. Starting in 2010, oil companies became interested in redeveloping the field using modern extraction technologies.
California Resources Corporation is an American energy corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in California. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Long Beach, California. Its mineral acreage holdings in California constitute the largest privately held position in the state.